SANTA ROSA, Cali. – The Saint Martin's softball team (1-1) officially has their season underway, splitting their two games down in northern California after a 9-6 loss to Sonoma State (1-0) and a 3-2 win over Academy of Art (0-3).
In the first game against the Seawolves, the Saints fell behind 5-0 in the 3rd inning. SMU started to push for a comeback in the top of the 4th with a rainbow homer by #5 Destiny Conerly bringing home #1 Shay Lopes and #6 Malia Pinder leaving the Saints down two. As SMU took the field in the bottom of the 4th, #25 Haley Agena rifled the ball down to #10 Britney Patrick on third base to pick off the final out in the fourth inning!
The runs continued into the fifth and sixth innings, #20 Olivia Schmidt notched an RBI double, #10 Patrick bagged an RBI single, and #4 Kekai Schultz gave the Saints the lead with a sac fly out to left field. The Seawolves struck back in the bottom of the 6th scoring four runs to secure the win.
Final: Sonoma State 9, Saint Martin's 6
In game two, the script was flipped as the Saints battled Academy of Art in a defensive struggle. Both teams kept the score deadlocked at zeroes before SMU stepped up to the plate in the top of the fifth. After the first two outs were recorded, Agena stepped up to lace a double to left center field and was then pushed to third after Vanessa Smoke forced an error out of the Urban Knights. The sophomore slugger Schultz then ripped a moonshot beyond the left field fence to crack the goose egg and send Saint Martin's up 3-0.
The ball was then handed back to Tia Ridings who continued to lock down Academy of Art. Ridings picked up the win, allowing just two hits over five innings, just one unearned run, and striking out six. Abby Runyon picked up the final two innings in the circle, striking out four and securing the save. The Urban Knights were able to get the potential tying run to third in the bottom of the 7th, but Runyon clipped the corner of the zone on the final pitch to mark the last out as a strikeout looking.
In her first collegiate start, Agena went 3-4 with a run scored, as well as stealing two bases.
Final: Saint Martin's 3, Academy of Art 2
The Saints are back in action tomorrow, with a rematch versus Sonoma State at 10 AM, followed by a matchup with Holy Names University (0-0) at 2:30 PM.
